What strange things have your kids memorized?

[....]

Alright, Peeps. There's a thread on the curriculum board discussing why the heck your kid would memorize parts of the periodic table. Like I said over there, my daughter took it upon herself to memorize that! :D

 

So, anyone else's kiddos memorized some really strange stuff?

 

 

I forgot to add - my daughter recently memorized the 5 States of Matter, drew a picture of them for me and hung it up on the fridge. Lol!

[Crimson Wife]

The DK Marvel Universe and DC Universe encyclopedias. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh, wait, you meant school-related stuff? ;)

[Dmmetler]

A lot of books, poems, jokes, and songs-especially rhyming, silly stuff.

 

She also can quote the Simon Basher definition of almost any science concept, which alternatively delights and frustrates her science teacher in her once a week class.

 

Long lists of dinosaur common names, scientific names, what the names mean, where they lived, when they lived, what they ate, what ate them, and what scientists used to believe and now think is incorrect.

 

Same as above, but for snakes and lizards.

 

The entire "Complete guide to Neopets".

 

Sigh.....

[....]

:D Why does this sound like our household?? Mine spend a lot of time looking through this one Encyclopedia of Reptiles. They look at the pictures in this book over and over and over. The pages are all worn out and starting to come out of its binding.

[Mommyfaithe]

Alright, Peeps. There's a thread on the curriculum board discussing why the heck your kid would memorize parts of the periodic table. Like I said over there, my daughter took it upon herself to memorize that! :D

 

So, anyone else's kiddos memorized some really strange stuff?

 

 

I forgot to add - my daughter recently memorized the 5 States of Matter, drew a picture of them for me and hung it up on the fridge. Lol!

 

My kids have memorized Marx Brothers scenes as well as full Monty Python skits. This in no way mirrors what I would LIKE for them to memorize...but they can all sing the Philosopher's song.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1MgCV6uGuc

 

Faithe

[zaichiki]

Not weird, but dd memorizes music and spelling rules (a la AAS).

 

Ds memorizes music and details about paleontology and history, but again, not really weird (just an interest).

 

What exactly do you mean by weird???

[catz]

The DK Marvel Universe and DC Universe encyclopedias. :tongue_smilie:

 

Oh, wait, you meant school-related stuff? ;)

 

ROFL - my kids have the whole pokemon and star wars universes memorized, as well as DC and Marvel. :tongue_smilie: My kids rarely use those memory super powers for good and often for evil! I would be hesitant to post the last little ditty they found on You Tube and memorized in less than 24 hours.

 

My son has gone in phases - dinosaurs, deep sea creatures, stars, etc. My daughter is big on American Girl historical backgrounds. They easily memorize spelling/reading/writing things and are way ahead in those areas. They both have incredible memory when it comes to their music lessons and the ability to hear things and piece it out on their instrument. Wish it'd carry over into memorizing something like the periodic table!

[kokotg]

DS9 used to be able to tell you the title of any Magic Treehouse book (well, up through the first 40 or so, at least) if you gave him the number, and vice versa. It was a little spooky, actually.

[....]

My kids have memorized Marx Brothers scenes as well as full Monty Python skits. This in no way mirrors what I would LIKE for them to memorize...but they can all sing the Philosopher's song.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1MgCV6uGuc

 

Faithe

 

Now, that is hilarious. I wish my kids would perform Monty Python skits for me. :tongue_smilie:

[....]

DS9 used to be able to tell you the title of any Magic Treehouse book (well, up through the first 40 or so, at least) if you gave him the number, and vice versa. It was a little spooky, actually.

 

This makes me feel better. My daughter's not the only one. :D

[mcconnellboys]

Yep, I'm not requiring periodic table memorization, but he's beginning to remember the more common elements, anyway. He's doing the five states of matter this year, along with some other chemistry related stuff, like what protons and neutrons are made of, etc....

[Belacqua]

Can I just tell you how happy I am we've gotten past the Memorize (and Recite at Any Opportunity) Digits of Pi phase?

 

Not that the Brush One's Teeth in the Fibonacci Sequence phase was much better...

[Jen in PA]

The seven year old memorized entire paragraphs from some of the Percy Jackson books last summer (she just kept rereading them!), as well as lots of strange bits from the Mythlopedia books. What I wish she would memorize is her times tables! Both kids know entirely too much Pokemon, and the five year old is suddenly very knowledgeable about all things Marvel.

[Donna]

When dd wasn't yet a year old, she began memorizing every book I read to her. Then when she was about 3yo, she had every bone in the body memorized and most of the major muscles...she loved anatomy, I don't know why. (She doesn't remember them now so I think it was a use it or lose it thing.) When she was 4yo she had the entire Phantom of the Opera movie memorized word for word including all the songs...she watched it by accident the first time when we were visiting relatives and I wasn't around.

 

She now memorizes any piece of music she hears...like the auditory equivalent of photographic memory. She also memorizes movies. I have learned to never argue with her over the way something happened or if she asks me if I remember when so-and-so said such-and-such, I never question if she's right. She never forgets anything!!

[Truscifi]

Let's see...the 1st half of the periodic table, the scientific names of various and sundry dinosaurs and ice age creatures, and the modern big cats, most episodes of The Backyardigans, the rulers and civs available in Civ IV, and at least 2/3 of the Island Paradise wikipedia. And those are just the unusual ones.

[....]

Can I just tell you how happy I am we've gotten past the Memorize (and Recite at Any Opportunity) Digits of Pi phase?

 

Not that the Brush One's Teeth in the Fibonacci Sequence phase was much better...

 

:lol: LOL!

 

Over the fall, my son was reciting The Sanctus from Prima Latina at EVERY opportunity - like Target, the grocery store, at church... We had to keep telling him to calm down. I had forgotten about that until reading everybody's responses.

Edited December 16, 2010 by starrbuck12

[mcconnellboys]

:lol::lol::lol:

[2smartones]

Some people quote book, chapter, and verse of the Bible. :001_smile:

 

My weird child likes to quote book, chapter, and page of the textbook that he learned a new Latin word in. :glare: (When using the word in context of a conversation, knowing I don't know what he just said.)

 

... and honestly, I think he does it on purpose because he knows he's running circles around me while I fumble around trying to learn enough Latin to teach him. We'll be getting a tutor soon. That's for sure! I'm enjoying Latin, but he's way, way, way ahead of me.

 

As far as other things go - both kids like to memorize entire movies (but so do I). The oldest likes to memorize charts, spreadsheets, tables, posters, or anything else that puts information in a logical, visual format. I don't think he has a photogenic memory, but he's definitely visual. I get as many posters as I can for him. Our school room is covered in them.

[redsquirrel]

My older son could recite Jabberwok at age 4. A couple years ago..maybe at 8.. I realized he was not reading Harry Potter out loud but reciting. That was a little creepy, actually. He just kept going for pages and pages.

 

Both boys like to bust out singing the songs from the Hobbit and LoTRs. Down, down to goblin town you go my lad etc etc

 

Oh, and I am pretty sure he has memorized every single Calvin and Hobbs cartoon.

 

Star Wars and dinosaur minutia are not allowed in my presence. I just can't take it any more. My five year old lost it in a store once because there was some cheap-o dinosaur that had the wrong number of fingers. He can still go off on that and it was last winter.

[nmoira]

DD the Elder memorized all the commemorative bench plaques at the zoo sometime between two and three.

[Staceyshoe]

The strange thing that my ds does? Associate a number with everything he memorizes. He knows exactly what song is one every CD track he owns (which is a lot because we use geography songs, skip counting songs, history songs CC, SSL, not to mention kid music, Christian music, etc.).

 

Last year is when I realized that his brain is wired completely different from mine. He had been learning the books of the Old Testament, and we were going to look up a Bible verse. I said, "Do you remember where Psalms is?" He immediately said, "19!" Turns out that Psalms is the 19th book of the OT. And no, the list he was using to learn the books of the Bible was not a numbered list. Since then I've noticed that he associates numbers with just about every little bit of memorization he does.

[....]

Both boys like to bust out singing the songs from the Hobbit and LoTRs. Down, down to goblin town you go my lad etc.

 

:rofl:

[Dmmetler]

Ooh! I'd forgotten this one. At just under age 3, DD had memorized all the US states and their capitols and major cities, both in how they looked and in their names, and most of the countries and THEIR capitols and major cities. Which was really spooky when someone would mention a place name and she'd rattle off all this information.

 

I'm sure there were people who thought I stuck her in a closet and forced her to memorize geography at that point. FWIW, she doesn't talk about it anymore, but when we talk about places in history, she does know, or can immediately figure out, where they're talking about, so I guess she retained it at a useful level.

 

I actually preferred the dinosaur facts-they were more "normal" for a preschooler!

[Staceyshoe]

Ooh! I'd forgotten this one. At just under age 3, DD had memorized all the US states and their capitols and major cities

 

:lol: I forgot that my ds did the same thing! He memorized all the names before I even realized it, and he mispronounced them ALL. Colorado was "color a due", etc. We started using them in general conversation A LOT, and he was able to self-correct. Too funny!

[Storm Bay]

My eldest has memorized a plethora of odd things, but I don't even know what they all are. She surprises us fairly regularly with this. However, she balks when she has to memorize things such as vocabulary, even though she's good at it. My ds memorizes anything he likes to read and study, such as airplane info, science facts, emotions, but he tends to forget anything he doesn't care for much, such as history (unless it's history about flight, etc.

 

As for my middle dd, I'm not sure.

 

The reason I don't remember more is that I tend to forget these things as they get older.

[MaMa2005]

Let's see - right now DS has just finished memorizing all the books of the Old and New Testament - for FUN. :glare: Last month, it was all the presidents and states and capitals. Last May, it was the multiplication tables. This morning, he has been watching three songs on YouTube - sung in Mandarin - and is running around singing them.

 

Mind you, all of these he has learned on his own - not from my teaching :lol:

[....]

This morning, he has been watching three songs on YouTube - sung in Mandarin - and is running around singing them.

 

My oldest kids did a unit study on the Inuits and watched several videos on YouTube of Inuit Throat-Singing. They thought that was THE most incredible thing they had ever seen. They were also trying to mimic it. :D

[Storm Bay]

My oldest kids did a unit study on the Inuits and watched several videos on YouTube of Inuit Throat-Singing. They thought that was THE most incredible thing they had ever seen. They were also trying to mimic it. :D

 

Do you have any links to any particularly good eg's of this on YouTube?

[Mommyfaithe]

Did I mention I can recite the entire Cat in the Hat??? LOL!

 

Faithe

[mcconnellboys]

My older son has always memorized lines from movies and he pops them into conversation if he hears a cue. It can be disconcerting to those who have no idea what he's doing, LOL. He knows every teeny, tiny miniscule detail of The Lord of the Rings books and still remains pretty knowledgable about other series he's liked, too, such as Star Wars, Eragon, etc. He walked into the room at the Parthenon in Nashville that houses the mock-up of the frieze work from the roof and rattled off the names of all the gods and goddesses shown there (two years after he'd done a Greek mythology course).

 

But he can't recall simple algebraic formulas for any length of time at all and has memory blackouts so complete at times that they scare me. Memory is a funny thing....

[Donna]

Did I mention I can recite the entire Cat in the Hat??? LOL!

 

Faithe

 

I can do Where the Wild Things Are...LOL Only because I must have read it a million times.:001_smile:

[Storm Bay]

Yesterday my eldest made a comment that reminded me of the fact that she has so many colours memorized. She knows almost all, if not all, the crayola colours she's ever had plus primacolor pencil colours, etc. She knows at least 100 colours (60 just from one crayola set), but I may be underestimating this (trying to guess low.) She knows the subtlest difference in colour. It can be very hard to get her to name a colour because she tends to be very exact.

 

That said, she doesn't remember what her composition assignments are and she doesn't care to write them down properly.

 

My next one, who is artistically gifted, can't name as many, which may simply be a lack of interest in the names, because's excellent at putting colours together that look well together.

[....]

Do you have any links to any particularly good eg's of this on YouTube?

 

I just plugged in Inuit Throat-Singing and there are a bunch of videos. It was very entertaining. We must've watched every video that was on there. One of the videos gave a background of Throat-Singing and said that it's done by women as a game and a way to pass the time. The key is to "battle" with the singing until someone loses their cool and starts laughing. Whoever laughs first LOSES! :D:D:D Anyway, some of the videos were hilarious. After a couple of minutes, someone always bursts with laughter. :lol: It was awesome.

[Storm Bay]

I just plugged in Inuit Throat-Singing and there are a bunch of videos. It was very entertaining. We must've watched every video that was on there. One of the videos gave a background of Throat-Singing and said that it's done by women as a game and a way to pass the time. The key is to "battle" with the singing until someone loses their cool and starts laughing. Whoever laughs first LOSES! :D:D:D Anyway, some of the videos were hilarious. After a couple of minutes, someone always bursts with laughter. :lol: It was awesome.

 

Now I've heard it. I didn't have time to watch all of the one where the sisters spoke about it. This isn't easy to do properly, is it?

[mktkcb]

Wow......I honestly couldn't tell you. He has such a phenomenal auditory memory, that literally since this kid could talk, he's been memorizing all manner of this and that. Poems, songs, jokes......you name it. whatever was interesting to him. He "spiels" All. the. time. I would say humor is probably the running thread througout...he latches onto funny stuff big time.

[ElizaG]

DS memorized all the states and capitals, then the locations of all the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (why? I have no idea), and now he's into streets. The local map is in tatters. If you name any street in our subdivision, or any major street in the larger area, he'll tell you where it starts and ends, which streets it intersects, when it changes names, etc.

 

The other day, he wanted to drive home a different way from the store, so I asked him to give me directions. We got lost within a few turns. Turns out he knows all those streets with 100% accuracy, but still doesn't know left from right. :tongue_smilie:

[....]

Now I've heard it. I didn't have time to watch all of the one where the sisters spoke about it. This isn't easy to do properly, is it?

 

I'm sure it has something to do with their native language - they probably form their words differently, etc. My son just thought that was the coolest thing ever! :lol:

[3littlekeets]

DS12 memorizes sitcom dialogue with one viewing...it is creepy! He also memorizes books on tape, etc.... if he hears it, he remembers it!

[newbie]

Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 tunes. Its eery to think I was singing the same tunes at her age.

[Storm Bay]

DS memorized all the states and capitals, then the locations of all the countries in the Middle East and North Africa (why? I have no idea), and now he's into streets. The local map is in tatters. If you name any street in our subdivision, or any major street in the larger area, he'll tell you where it starts and ends, which streets it intersects, when it changes names, etc.

 

The other day, he wanted to drive home a different way from the store, so I asked him to give me directions. We got lost within a few turns. Turns out he knows all those streets with 100% accuracy, but still doesn't know left from right. :tongue_smilie:

:lol::lol::lol:

[....]

Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 tunes. Its eery to think I was singing the same tunes at her age.

 

:D OK, my 5 yro loves that old Johnny Cash song "Ghost Riders in the Sky". Ummm, yeah. :svengo: Where do they get this from??? :tongue_smilie:

[Truscifi]

I the other day I heard ds7 singing the lyrics to Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season by Jimmy Buffet. Apparently he has been listening to my ipod and memorized the songs.

[Dmmetler]

Could be worse-when my DD was 3, she skipped into her (parochial) preschool one day singing "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK!...". Whoops-had put the wrong playlist on in the car.

[GypsieFamily]

Dd8 can tell you fro historical fiction how many blows of the axe it took to execute various historical characters ordered to be executed by the state (eg lady Jane grey took 2).

 

Morbid, and definitely weird for a wry nicely spoke., sweet young lady(except when fighting with her brother)

[Mommyfaithe]

My little guys will break into "Godzilla" with air guitar and long solos...lol!!

 

Faithe

[Jill]

My little guys will break into "Godzilla" with air guitar and long solos...lol!!

 

Faithe

"Godzilla" is a favorite, the Dr. Who theme too. He knows/learns/memorizes the themes to movies easily (first hearing if he likes it) and likes to play "Name That Tune" with me to see if I can guess the movie/show/what-have-you.

 

He memorized the scene from Holy Grail where the knights go to the cave and the rabbit jumps out and attacks everyone. He remade it in Legos actually.

 

He memorized sections of Hitchhiker's Guide and then of course much of the obligatory dino info, animal info, etc... from books and encyclopaedias.

edit: I almost forgot, all the rulers and civs from the Civ computer game too that someone else mentioned.

Edited December 31, 2010 by Jill

[ElizaG]

DS5 has moved on from street maps. He's now memorizing Gilbert and Sullivan songs, as well as all kinds of stuff from the Children's Illustrated Bible by Eve MacMaster (detailed but not gory; highly recommended for advanced readers). He's especially interested in the names of the Old Testament prophet and the details of the death of John the Baptist. He seems to have a pretty good grasp of these subjects, though I did have to clarify that "Salome" is not pronounced "salami."

 

DD3 is his biggest fan. She's soaking all this up, along with SOTW1 and various other stuff we're reading. :bigear: It's turning into a bizarre soup in her little mind.

Edited February 3, 2011 by Eleanor

[Kuovonne]

We do memory work as a family in the mornings. I had my 4 year old working on basic stuff, like phone number, address, and how to spell her name. Last week she decided she wanted to memorize a poem. Not just any poem; "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Christina Rosetti, a heavyweight of a poem.

 

The fact that she can't read, much less understand, some of the words has her undaunted. She even came up with a plan of attack by herself: she'll add one stanza at a time until she has done it four times, and then add the next stanza.

 

She plugs away at it determinedly each morning and has the first two stanzas memorized. We help her sound out unfamiliar words, but I don't give her any other help because I wish she'd tackle something more reasonable.

 

 

My older daughter memorized the colors of foam numbers that we had in the bathtub when she was a baby. I didn't know until we started Miquon years later. I asked her what color different numbers, expecting the colors of the C-rods. Instead, she recited the colors from the foam tub toys. She hadn't seen those foamies in years!

Edited February 4, 2011 by Kuovonne

[Cera]

I the other day I heard ds7 singing the lyrics to Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season by Jimmy Buffet. Apparently he has been listening to my ipod and memorized the songs.

 

This cracked me up because I can hear my 4 year old singing "Baby's gone shoppin'" from her bedroom at the top of the stairs.

 

She has memorized at least a dozen Jimmy Buffet songs and serenades us daily.

[Storm Bay]

My older daughter memorized the colors of foam numbers that we had in the bathtub when she was a baby. I didn't know until we started Miquon years later. I asked her what color different numbers, expecting the colors of the C-rods. Instead, she recited the colors from the foam tub toys. She hadn't seen those foamies in years!

 

My dd is like this with colours, and can remember these things for years and years (she's now 15.)